He is well known as a basketball and cycling coach, but these days, the famous Matthew Smiling is focusing his efforts almost entirely on his father?s meat shop, Smiling Meats, located at 69 Hyde’s Lane.

We found Matthew Smiling this morning weighing meats and putting them into bags at the beginning of what is sure to become Christmas rush. Some have already started to pick up their Christmas hams and so business is buzzing, so to speak.

But what is buzzing in the back of Matthew’s mind? Could he truly forsake his love for the sports that kept his competitive spirit alive for the last two decades?

Surely, the many cycling and basketball trophies that grace the entrance of the meat shop as well as his office reminds him of another side of him that loves to compete at sports.

Preparations are being made for the next semi-pro season, and Smiling says he would resume coaching “if the price is right.”

In January, his focus turns to the under 20 basketballers, who he mentors as a part of the national program for junior basketball.

“What we try to do is not just basketball, but we try to develop a better person, so that after basketball, they can contribute to the community,” he stressed. “I don?t think we have anybody who comes into our program and comes out as a ‘bad egg.’ We have had some ?bad eggs? come in, but when they leave there their minds are different.”

Smiling says that sports in Belize have suffered for two main reasons: (1) the financial investment is not enough, and (2) there is a serious lack of discipline.

“A lot of the people who get into sport just get into it for the love or because they are fascinated with it,” he added.

Another issue he pointed out is that the value of sport is not being instilled in us at a young age.

“In other countries, sports and education go together; there should not be one without the other,” he asserted. “That’s what we lack in Belize.”

For Smiling, his involvement in sports began at high school, Belize Junior Secondary School, where he played basketball.

“That was my first sport,” he continued. “But one Sunday, I got hurt at the gym and the same afternoon, Lindy Gillett came to see me. He saw me hurt and began to laugh. He said, ?You see what I told you. This is why you should come and ride bike. And from then, I got into bicycling. I gave up basketball.”

This was after the Belize Technical College, where he studied mechanical engineering. He gave up the ball for a bike and soon emerged as one of the nation?s leading cyclists. In fact, he was the first to sprint to the finish in 1986.

“That was the only thing I was aiming for at that time in the country, because we didn’t have those lots of races, international events in our time. They had very few. The biggest thing at that time was cross-country,” he said.

His glory days ran from mid 1981 to 1988.

“That’s how long I was really competitive. The sport then was more fun, no bickering and complaining like now,” he remembers. “We had more fun plus we cyclists, Stone Jam, Dave Yearwood, my brother (Andrew), Melvin Torres, Robert Mossiah, Lindy Gillett, we used to take the sport more serious. We use to train harder, took care of our bodies better.”

He said that in those days, there were not many prizes and they competed “for the love” of the sport.

Fortunately for him, he worked for his father at the Old Market, where the Commercial Center now sits in downtown Belize City. He could train in the mornings without the worry of having to get to work at 8 or 9. He said that his father, Winston Smiling, was very supportive of him.

His coaching career bloomed in the 1990’s. In the mid 90’s, he coached a senior team and went a team from St. John’s College. From there, it was semi-pro, but this is where the real challenges started.

His best times in basketball were the first championship win with SJC in 1996 and the undefeated winning streak of the junior team around 2000. He named players like Chaka Lightburn and Englebert Cherrington, saying, “that was one of the best teams I’ve coached. They were very disciplined? They would come to workout before coach.”

On the other hand, the toughest time he recalls in his sporting career was coaching the Raiders in2002/2003, working along with Mose Hyde.

“I worked well with Mose Hyde. We had no problem. I had a free reign, especially the first year. Whatever I wanted, Mose got,” Smiling said.

But the shortfall, he said, was that the players were not of the caliber to ensure a win in the competition. Getting a winning team takes a lot of money, he said.

“If you look at it, you judge the last three Semi Pro champions, it’s people who really went into their pockets and spent to get the players. You have to keep the players happy.”

Now he is on hiatus from basketball and from cycling.

“I quit cycling because Anamarie (Bennett-McCulloch) is no racing,” he lamented. He said that he would get back in if he could find new athletes who are willing to put in the sacrifice and who want to do their own thing.

He praises Mrs. McCulloch for being very disciplined in the sport. He believes she achieved what she wanted to achieve because she was not easily influenced.

But today, Matthew Smiling was not focusing on basketball or cycling at least that’s what he told us. He said that his imminent vision it to expand Smiling Meats, to make it bigger and better.

He prides himself in continuing to make a living in the same neighborhood where he grew up as a boy in Raymond’s Alley.

Meanwhile, he waits for those aspiring athletes who are self-motivated and disciplined enough to draw him back into coaching again. Perhaps another Queen of the Hills like Anamarie.

(Note: Requests for suggestions for this column were sent out via e-mail to a wide cross-section of Belizeans. We have gotten some great responses and look forward to more in the future.)